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R&D
The beginning
-Hello? Hello? Yes hello Bernard.
-Listen, I have a proposition to make you... How would you like to film in 8K during the Roland Garros tournament? For your information, UHD 8K TVs are coming this year on the market !
-8K ?
-Yes, some Japanese people from Sharp are lending us 2 cameras and the 70' screens and you could film with Patrick Profit. He's a director who already has a 4K level bottle. A pro of new formats.
-With pleasure Bernard!
See you during the qualifying week of Roland Garros to take the cameras in hand. On the program: shoot every day to experiment the tool and succeed in making a live for the men's final.
The result:
The taking in hand of the 8K camera
The adventure began on May 22nd. Two Japanese from the company Sharp brought us 2 cameras equipped with Canon lenses. For the connoisseurs: a 17/120 and a 50/1000.
The first one was rather classic. The second one... How to tell you... It was longer and bigger than the camera! A telephoto lens that allowed you to see in the whites of Nadal's eyes!
Well, it was quite heavy and I must admit that I had a gentleman with me. Patrick always carried the camera and even more so the one with the telephoto lens. It seems nothing in the experience? Well yes, I was able to fully enjoy the shooting without the excessive weight. Him too of course. Well, I hope so.
And this telephoto lens allowed us to highlight the incredible detail qualities of the 8K.
Once we had the cameras in hand, we took a few pictures in the Roland Garros stadium. We had to find our marks: For example: are we shooting in bt709 or bt2020? Very technical? It's a question of color panel.
In reality we did all the possible tests and we opted for the solution that was perfect for the editing tools and the 8K screen that the Japanese had lent us: bt709.
The settings
On paper, the bt709 quality was not the best from a colorimetric point of view, but the whole post-production chain and the 8K screen were optimized for this format, and we would not have had the material time to exploit the color palette of the bt2020 in post-production.
It must also be said that Patrick and I had more fun working this way because the color viewfinder was less bland. And yes, it's a bit like the RAW format. At first the image seems flat and almost monochrome but in reality you can exploit as never before the color wheel, the contrasts, the luminance etc... in post-production, and thus obtain very worked out and splendid images. Or not.
Small flatness all the same on the viewfinder makes me notice Patrick. He is used to the 4K viewfinder of his F55 camera.
That said, we had no problem focusing.
However, it is not so long ago that cameramen had problems to focus in HD. Well in 8K, no problem ! What a pleasure to know that you can make such a defined image without having any problem to capture it !
Paris in 8K
As we had these cameras for the duration of the tournament we had the opportunity to film Paris as it woke up: its monuments, its streets.... As soon as the sun caresses the image we choose, it is sublimated. It's simply magnificent. "8katique" could we say?
Back at Roland Garros, every day we would go to the Suzanne Lenglen court or the Philippe Chatrier center court to see and film the world's best tenniswomen and tennismen thanks to the access given by the FFT. We even had good placements for the Women's and Men's finals. Privileged views and privileged images!
Post-production
We were editing the images as we went along. The Japanese had lent us a GVG computer powerful enough to read the images with fluidity. So we could easily edit the images. Because we don't think about it enough but a simple 40 second rush weighs 24 Giga... In HD it would be more like 1.5 G. So in 8K, with our basic computers, we risk seeing the hourglass turn a long time before having the first image. In addition, Bernard, he wanted to compress them in their broadcast format as much to say that the PC had work, by the way, thanks to the Berlin Start-Up Spin Digital for providing the encoder!
The cherry for Patrick and me? The pleasure, every day, to see our images broadcast on an 8K screen, via the German player installed on a 24-core PC from INTEL and a powerful nVidia graphics card, was a marvel. They are so defined that you think you are wearing 3D glasses... the relief details come out and you can almost touch them. It's a feeling close to immersion. A small pleasure in the second week, the President of the FFT wanted the same installation in his VIP dining room, very proud to make his guests admire these magnificent images.
...and a live in 8K
To go further, during the Nadal/Thiem final, the Digital Innovation team, Patrick and the France Télévisions production team achieved the feat of producing a Live 8K. They installed a fiber between the camera at the top of the Philippe Chatrier court and the RGLab 100m further on. A few adjustments later, perfect connections and the live worked. The antenna result really made the difference with the neighboring 4K screen. Details and definition. So even when you think you've already done your best for the human eye - from 4K to 8K you still see a difference!
These experiences were truly rewarding for picture people like Patrick and me. Realizing that this will be part of our future.
We are ready for the future!
